That cost we were discussing

Saturday, 29 March 2003

As I already wrote, I’m against
the current conflict in Iraq even though. And I know Hussein is a bad
man. I would like little more than to see him dead. And anyone who has
murdered an innocent person for that matter.

It’s the cost:benefit ratio that is off as I see it.

A friend of mine wrote something about me and my stance. Everything
basically comes down to me feeling for the innocent who are getting
caught in the gears. I think people have trouble feeling that. Lord
knows all I wanted on the afternoon of September 11th was to personally paint every grain of sand in the
Sahara red. I think there is still a lot of want for that. And every
time the French open their filthy flaps it makes more people want
recompense. And every time someone says something as ludicrous as,
“Make love, not war,” and every time you worry about the unemployment
line and $2/gallon gas and so on and suchlike.

And I think it all obscures the cost. Makes it a vague intellectual
understanding of:

WAR =
KILLING * ( guilty + innocent )

Americans are the luckiest people in the world. And I mean luckiest. I
can show you. The current generation of Americans could never rebuild
what’s been handed to us on a silver platter. All we can do alternate
between chipping away at it and trying to minister to its manifold
sickness.

Because we’re lucky, we have a hard time understanding. I’d like to
help you understand the cost.

This is an
American daughter, mine actually.

She looks a lot
like an Iraqi daughter, I think.

Here are some more Iraqi children. All my life I’ve
preferred to make points with words but I really think you don’t
understand and words won’t do it for this. I’m sorry, but either way,
you need to know and see more of it.

If you’re for the invasion of Iraq, okay. It’s hard to argue in
absolute terms b/c the world would be a much better place if Iraq had
a different government. Hussein has murdered thousands in horrific
ways. But you damn well better understand the cost. This is on the
bill that you are writing a check for right now. And if history is any
teacher, these are just previews of what the cost is going to be in
the end.

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A Wolf prowling near a village one evening met a Dog. It happened
to be a very lean and bony Dog, and Master Wolf would have turned
up his nose at such meager fare had he not been more hungry than
usual. So he began to edge toward the Dog, while the Dog backed
away.

“Let me remind your lordship,” said the Dog, his words
interrupted now and then as he dodged a snap of the Wolf’s teeth,
“how unpleasant it would be to eat me now. Look at my ribs. I am
nothing but skin and bone. But let me tell you something in
private. In a few days my master will give a wedding feast for
his only daughter. You can guess how fine and fat I will grow on
the scraps from the table. Then is the time to eat me.”

The Wolf could not help thinking how nice it would be to have a
fine fat Dog to eat instead of the scrawny object before him. So
he went away pulling in his belt and promising to return.

Some days later the Wolf came back for the promised feast. He
found the Dog in his master’s yard, and asked him to come out and
be eaten.

“Sir,” said the Dog, with a grin, “I shall be delighted to have
you eat me. I’ll be out as soon as the porter opens the door.”

But the “porter” was a huge Dog whom the Wolf knew by painful
experience to be very unkind toward wolves. So he decided not to
wait and made off as fast as his legs could carry him.

Do not depend on the promises of those whose interest it is to
deceive you.